Short Books
Books under 200 pages to help you achieve your reading goals.
November 8, 2023
2023 is almost over… where has the year gone?
If you’ve still got a few books left on your yearly reading goal, never fear—we’ve got you covered! Almost all the books in this list are under 200 pages.
Jump to: Fiction | Non-Fiction, Biography and Memoir
Fiction
All Grown Up
Jami Attenberg
Hiding the truth about her unhappiness and struggles with anxiety from everyone including her family, best friend, and therapist, Andrea Bern joins her loved ones in a reevaluation of family strength in the wake of her newborn niece’s heartbreaking ailment.
The Uncommon Reader
Alan Bennett
Obliged to borrow a book when her corgis stray into a mobile library, the Queen discovers a passion for reading, setting the palace upon its head and causing the royal head of Great Britain to question her role in the monarchy.
A Psalm For The Wild-Built
Becky Chambers
Centuries after disappearing into the wilderness en masse, the sentient robots of Panga return to visit with a tea monk and answer their burning question, “What do people need?” in the first novel of a new series.
Once More Upon A Time
Roshani Chokshi
A fairy tale prince and princess get a second chance at getting what they truly desire in this dazzling tale as they embark on an enchanted road trip and encounter a delightful cast of magical characters. Imelda and Ambrose have forgotten why they got together in the first place. After a whirlwind courtship and a fairy-tale wedding, they embark on life together as royalty of Loves Keep. But when Imelda is in trouble, Ambrose sacrifices their love to save her life, little knowing that theloss of their love will jeopardize the entire kingdom…
And Then There Were None
Agatha Christie
A killer stalks a group of ten total strangers on an isolated island off the Devon coast, in a suspenseful story of murder and retribution set to a sinister nursery rhyme.
The House On Mango Street
Sandra Cisneros
For Esperanza, a young girl growing up in the Hispanic quarter of Chicago, life is an endless landscape of concrete and run-down tenements, and she tries to rise above the hopelessness.
Foster
Claire Keegan
An Irish child taken by her father to live with relatives on a farm finds the love and affection she never knew before and begins to thrive in the internationally best-selling novel now available as a standalone book.
American Housewife
Helen Ellis
A collection of stories featuring conventional, if ruthless, housewives features a rigged reality television show, a unique book club initiation ritual, and the fitting room of a legendary lingerie shop.
The Grownup
Gillian Flynn
When a charlatan “psychic” visits her Victorian home to find the source of her terror and grief, Susan, the psychic, and her teenage stepson are soon forced to confront the truth about ghosts.
This Is How You Lose The Time War
Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone
Two time-traveling agents from warring futures, working their way through the past, begin to exchange letters and soon fall in love, even though the discovery of their bond could mean death for each of them.
The End We Start From
Megan Hunter
In an alternate-world modern London submerged below flood waters, a woman who has just given birth to her first child is forced to flee her home with her baby to seek refuge in a variety of locations while the baby thrives against all odds.
A Single Man
Christopher Isherwood
A professor at a California university in the 1960s must deal with loneliness and a sense of disconnection after the death of his longtime partner.
Sleep No More
Six Murderous Tales
P.D. James
An anthology of six previously uncollected stories explores the memories, emotional machinations, rationalizations, dreams, and desires of people who get away with the perfect murder or who help keep information about a killing secret.
The Vegetarian
Han Kang
Deciding to renounce eating meat in the wake of violent dreams, Yeong-hye, a woman from a culture of strict societal mores, is denounced as a subversive as she spirals into extreme rebelliousness that causes her to splinter from her true nature and risk her life.
Small Things Like These
Claire Keegan
In a small Irish town in 1985, coal merchant and family man, Bill Furlong, while delivering an order to the local convent, makes a discovery that forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.
The Little Snake
A.L. Kennedy
A poignant fable about life’s journeys depicts a disadvantaged girl in a city of beautiful rose gardens whose devoted snake friend watches the impact of war, love and his own destiny on her life and their friendship.
Nothing But Blackened Teeth
Cassandra Khaw
A Heian-era mansion resting on the bonds of a bride, the perfect venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends, brought back together to celebrate a wedding, find a night of revelry turning into a bloody nightmare.
Epic Game
William Kowalski
Kat, a tough, independent professional poker player, becomes temporary guardian to her deceased friend’s ten-year-old son, David, and she finds herself changed in ways she never thought imaginable.
The Incendiaries
R.O. Kwon
A dark tale of violence, faith and loss follows the experiences of a young Korean-American woman at an elite university who is drawn into acts of domestic terrorism by a cult with ties to North Korea.
Whereabouts
Jhumpa Lahiri
An English translation of a first Italian-language novel by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Lowland follows the routines of a misfit city dweller who experiences a year of remarkable transformation in the aftermath of a parent’s death.
Sisters
Lily Tuck
A novel of marriage, infidelity, and obsession follows a new wife who struggles with her unrelenting fascination with her husband’s first wife.
Nutshell
Ian McEwan
The nine-month-old inhabitant of Trudy’s womb bears witness to a murder plot devised by Trudy and Claude, the brother of Trudy’s ex-husband.
Every Heart A Doorway
Seanan McGuire
Sent away to a home for children who have tumbled into fantastical other worlds and are looking for ways to return, Nancy triggers dark changes among her fellow schoolmates and resolves to expose the truth when a child dies under suspicious magical circumstances.
The Bluest Eye
Toni Morrison
The story of Pecola Breedlove profiles an eleven-year-old black girl growing up in an America that values blue-eyed blondes and the tragedy that results from her longing to be accepted.
The Strange Library
Haruki Murakami
From the internationally acclaimed author of Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage comes a fantastical illustrated short novel about a boy imprisoned in a nightmarish library.
Open Water
Caleb Azumah Nelson
A stunning first novel about two young Black artists in London falling in and out of love by a new literary virtuoso, and finalist for the BBC Short Story Award, twenty-six-year old writer and photographer Caleb Azumah Nelson.
The Friend
Sigrid Nunez
Becoming the guardian of her late best friend’s enormous Great Dane, a grieving woman is evicted from her no-pets apartment and forges a deep bond with the equally distraught animal in ways that initially disturb her friends.
Dept Of Speculation
Jenny Offill
An unflinching portrait of marriage by the award-winning author of Last Things features a heroine simply referred to as “the Wife,” who transitions from an idealistic woman who once exchanged love letters with her husband and who confronts an array of universal difficulties.
Brokeback Mountain
Annie Proulx
The friendship between Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist, two cowboys, evolves into an intimate relationship while they are working together as a herder and camp tender, sharing a bond that spans many years and frequent separations.
Fox 8
George Saunders
When a new shopping mall cuts off his food supply, an idealistic fox that taught himself to speak “Yuman” by hiding in the bushes outside a house and listening to children’s bedtime stories sets out on a quest to help save his pack.
Of Mice And Men
John Steinbeck
A controversial tale of friendship and tragedy during the Great Depression, in a deluxe centennial edition.
Comfort Me With Apples
Catherynne M Valente
A woman who believes she is living a perfect life begins to wonder why her husband is away at work so much and also what is in the locked basement she is not permitted to enter.
Chemistry
Weike Wang
Losing her love for her major when her graduate studies become subject to research failures and high pressure, a Boston University student contemplates a marriage proposal from a more successful fellow scientist while she pursues an entirely different kind of chemistry.
Montana 1948
Larry Watson
A series of events in a small western town changes the lives of David Hayden, his sheriff father, his mother, and their Sioux housekeeper, as they discover the truth about family loyalty.
All Systems Red
Martha Wells
A team of scientists and their security android, who unbeknownst to the scientists has hacked its own governor module, must investigate a neighboring mission that has gone dark.
Ways Of Going Home
Alejandro Zambra
The writer son of a quiet sympathizer with the Pinochet regime reflects on the progress of his novel, in which an unnamed boy from a Chilean suburb witnesses an earthquake and meets an older girl who asks him to spy on her uncle.
Non-Fiction, Biography and Memoir
Notes On Grief
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Presents a deeply personal work of meditation, hope, and remembrance recounting the death of the author’s beloved father in the summer of 2020.
We Should All Be Feminists
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Offers an updated definition of feminism for the twenty-first century, one rooted in inclusion and awareness.
I Hope This Finds You Well
Kate Baer
The author of the #1 New York Times bestseller What Kind of Woman returns with a collection of erasure poems created from notes she received from followers, supporters and detractors–an artform that reclaims the vitriol from online trolls and inspires readers to transform what is ugly or painful in their own lives into something beautiful.
Art Matters
Neil Gaiman
A stunning and timely creative call-to-arms combining four extraordinary written pieces by Neil Gaiman illustrated with the striking four-color artwork of Chris Riddell.
The Love Prescription
Seven Days To More Intimacy, Connection, And Joy
John Gottman, Julie Schwartz Gottman
Drawing on 40 years of studying love and sharing data from more than 3,000 couples, two of the world’s leading relationship scientists present a formula from a good relationship, showing how a few small changes can fundamentally transform your relationship for the better.
The White Darkness
David Grann
The #1 New York Times best-selling author of Killers of the Flower Moon traces the South Pole expedition of a decorated British special forces officer, an admirer and descendant of Ernest Shackleton’s expedition, who in 2015 risked his life to walk across Antarctica alone.
Barracoon
The Story Of The Last “black Cargo”
Zora Neale Hurston
Presents a previously unpublished work that illuminates the horror and injustices of slavery in the true story of one of the last known survivors of the Atlantic slave trade, Cudjo Lewis, who was abducted from Africa on the last “Black Cargo” ship to arrive in the United States.
Milk And Honey
Rupi Kaur
Presents poems that deal with the bitter aspects of love, loss, abuse, violence, and trauma, and celebrates the unstoppable power of grace, healing, and feminine strength.
The Magical Language Of Others
EJ Koh
Left behind when work requires her parents to return to Korea, a teen poet reconnects with family history to manage the impact of absent caregivers on her sense of self.
Heart Berries
Terese Marie Mailhot
The author recounts her coming of age on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation in the Pacific Northwest where she survived a dysfunctional childhood and found herself hospitalized with a dual diagnosis of PTSD and bipolar II disorder.
How To Be A Good Creature
A Memoir In Thirteen Animals
Sy Montgomery
A naturalist and adventurer discusses the personalities and quirks of thirteen animals who have profoundly affected her, exploring themes of learning to become empathetic, creating families, coping with loss, and the otherness and sameness of people and animals.
Blue Horses
Mary Oliver
Presents a collection of poems that reflects the author’s signature imagery-based language and her observations of the unaffected beauty of nature.
Brighter By The Day
Waking Up To New Hopes And Dreams
Robin Roberts
The beloved co-host of Good Morning America and best-selling author presents a guide to finding a sense of hope, positivity and encouragement during even the darkest days of our lives.
Be A Triangle
How I Went From Being Lost To Getting My Life In Shape
Lilly Singh
Actress, content creator and author of the best-selling How to Be a Bawse offers readers a way to create a sense of peace within themselves by becoming a “triangle” with a solid foundation that can be built-upon but not destroyed.
The Little Book Of Rest
100+ Ways To Relax And Restore Your Mind, Body, And Soul
Stephanie Thomas
Take your self-care and healing to the next level by redefining rest with these accessible and practical approaches to looking beyond sleep and focusing on other physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional parts of the self.
Navigate Your Stars
Jesmyn Ward
The two-time National Book Award-winning author of Sing, Unburied, Sing presents a sumptuously illustrated meditation on the power of tenacity in the face of hardship as well as the importance of respect of the self and others.